Luminescent materials, i.e., phosphors, are used in many devices including fluorescent lamps, plasma-panel display gas-discharge cells, electron-beam display devices, and other emissive displays, etc. These materials are often polycrystalline inorganic solids that emit radiation when stimulated with fast electrons, X-rays, ultraviolet (UV) photons, or some other form of radiation. The discovery and development of new solid state materials with efficient visible luminescence (i.e., phosphors) is of importance both for the next generation of flat panel displays (see, Maruska, et al., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc., 345:269 (1994)), for lighting applications (see, Butler, Fluorescent Lamp Phosphors, Penn. State Univ. Press, Univ. Park (1980)), and the like.
The preparation and discovery of new solid state inorganic compounds, however, is limited by the lack of a general framework that provides broad based predictive synthetic strategies and theories. Due to the lack of predictive tools available to the solid state inorganic chemist, the preparation of new phosphors has generally been restricted to serial synthesis and analysis techniques. As such, serial synthesis and testing of powder phosphors has been the discovery and development paradigm for the last one hundred and fifty years. Such techniques have resulted in the discovery of less than one hundred phosphors suitable for commercial use (see, Vecht, SID Seminar Lecture Notes, 2, F-2/3 (1996); Ropp, The Chemistry of Artificial Lighting Devices, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 414-656 (1993)). At the same time, efforts to predict basic solid state properties from theory, including intrinsic or extrinsic luminescent efficiency, have been unsuccessful (see, DiSalvo, Science, 247:649 (1990)). Using traditional methods, fewer than 1% of all possible ternary compounds and less than 0.01% of all possible quaternary compounds have been synthesized heretofore (see, Rodgers, et al., Mat. Res. Bull., 18:27 (1993)).
In view of the foregoing, it is readily apparent that there remains a need in the art for novel phosphor materials that can be used for generating luminescence. The present invention fulfills this and other needs.